Short term (config/theming/config)+ ongoing support (dev)

Hi guys,

I'm just getting a new site up and running. I got the Hosting/OpenCart install/SSL running myself but when it came to the look and feel aspect as well as some of the configuration abilities, I knew I needed some help.

I put a project out for bid on oDesk and have hired an OpenCart specialist - I picked what seemed like the most skilled guy, I'm paying $24 per hour. I think he's probably ok technically - I say "think" because I'm currently sitting here waiting for him to upload his work. We explicitly agreed that to start our relationship, I'd buy a 5 hour block of time and see what he could do with it. So, when the 5 hour block is up, he asked for more time to be allocated; I say I'd like to see what you've accomplished. He says "I will upload when you increase time limit". So I was not terribly happy about that and let him know, and of course he assured me that's not what he really meant.....lol I've had several other issues with him saying one thing and doing another, so even though he's probably(?) pretty decent from a technical perspective, I have this thing about honesty, trust, and liking the people I work with. (Generally speaking, I'd say 80%++ of the responses on oDesk were "somewhat dishonest" to put it nicely....some of the responses I caught in outright lies. Not a lot of quality people on there imho.)

Anyways....I thought I'd post on here to see who is available and at what rates. Yes, I fully realize there is much truth to the statement "you get what you pay for", but at the same time I do want to keep the budget somewhat under control.

As for what type of work I'll be wanting:
1. Advice - phone and email
2. General configuration, theming, look and feel, perhaps a bit of graphics work (how much of this I'll need depends on how much this guy finishes)
3. Some custom plugin advice and possibly development. One example:
I would like to attach 2 (for example) optional add-on purchase items to "Product A" - the options for the items are: "ProductB, ProductC, or ProductD) - with a discounted price on these items when purchased as an add-on to Product A.....**and**, when the customer checks out, I would like the inventory of the chosen add-on products adjusted accordingly. (As I understand it, any options attached to a product are currently maintained in kind of a secondary inventory bucket that is attached to the parent product itself?) So...assuming this is actually a problem....is there an existing plugin that solves this, if not, is it possible to develop one, and how hard ($$$) would it be.

UPDATE:
So, it looks like I am just going to go ahead with this guy for now for this initial configuration to the a level suitable for presentation to my credit card processor for approval. (We are using the SellYa theme btw....any opinions on that?: http://themeforest.net/item/sellya-resp ... me/3431353)

I am very unhappy with his performance at this point, but time is of the essence with regards to the credit card processor. But once that is complete, I might throw the whole thing in the garbage and start over if I'm not in a good spot to move forward. Hopefully not, but who knows.

Here, I'll give the link to the dev site:
http://dev.firstvape.com/
Snapshot at time of this post: http://i.imgur.com/bY0kpAz.jpg

Putting this in place took 7.5 hours - I had already provided the logo icon, and images and products, manufacturers, etc (I had already loaded all of this into my original site). At the start of his work, he began from a fresh install of OpenCart (using not the latest version, fwiw) rather than starting from a snapshot of my existing site, which seemed odd to me.

I've given a short list of very minor tweaks (minor css, extend carousel timer, bigger logo, US & Canada currencies, change cart icon, and a few more items of similar complexity) to the developer to the original dev build and have been given an estimate of 5 hours for that. Maybe I'm out to lunch here, but starting from knowing absolutely nothing about OpenCart and putting a site up on my own, these numbers seem a bit excessive to me. I'm ok with spending money, but what I'm getting for my money is the part that concerns me. At the rate we're going here, it scares me to think how long it would take to do some of the genuinely complicated things like the "option inventory" mod mentioned above. (Note: I have a software dev background and am quite familiar with html/css, so I'm pretty certain there aren't complications involved here that I'm unaware of. Why don't I do it myself you ask.....lack of time.)

Any honest (rude if necessary) opinions on whether I have unrealistic expectations here?

Anyways, enough ranting....if anyone wants to contact me, tell me a bit about yourself, rate, background, skill-sets, completed projects (preferably with links, description of actual work, cost to client), country and timezone you are in, etc I'd be interested to hear.

Considering the uncertainty of what I'm doing next, I'd recommend not going out of your way too much to customize your reply to me, so mostly-boilerplate messages are perfectly fine. (But for the love of god, please be honest.)

Thank,
Trevor

Thought I'd post a bit of an update on events since my first post.

I ended up paying this fellow for 15 hours, and am extremely displeased with the results. I'll give just a few examples of why....

- None of the changes were made using VQMod, even though I asked him to. One change I requested was to see the country flag beside the currently active currency - his implementation consisted to changes directly to multiple files within both /catalog and /system as well as (I think) an addition of a database column. So unless I am mistaken, I am now unable to upgrade OpenCart or my Theme when a new release comes out without losing this (and multiple other) changes. Also, the change he made wasn't SSL compliant so I got a insecure warning in the browser when on a secured page, so in the process of fixing that I discovered how he had done things.
- All the initial configuration I did was lost and had to be redone (I explicitly asked for it to be preserved).
- Many of the changes I requested were possible or already existing in the base configuration; example: I didn't like the shopping cart icon after round 1 of changes. He asked me to choose one from an online icons page, and again he made changes to multiple files to make this icon available. I later discovered Sellya already offers alternative shopping icon choices.
- I asked him to make a list of all files added or changed per task - he ignored that request (and many others).
- on two occasions he tried to "blackmail" me to give him more hours

I could go on but I think you get the idea. I think this guy is actually quite clever, I believe his business model is based on:
a) doing things in the most difficult way possible
b) making changes directly to core files in this manner so upgrades will always break the changes and he will get to redo all the work every so often

So that's where I'm at now.....I have to submit my site for credit card processing approval now, so after that undecided if I'll carry on with the other changes I want from what I have now or start over from scratch.

If you're still looking for help, feel free to email me at support@cwswebsitedesign.com and we can talk about the specifics to get your site the way you want it.

Regards,

DL

Nice and crisp looking, good features, looks quite presentable. Thanks for the rant about oDesk, coming here was a godd idea for sure. There are some great people working on OpenCart, all over. It's an interesting inventory as well, and that makes a site more fun to work with, so that's a why ... PM or otherwise let me know how or when to assist.